Zaki said he wished
to remind Israelis that “one day the Palestinians defeated Israel with stones” –
a reference to the first intifada that erupted in 1987.

On Wednesday,
another top Fatah official, Mahmoud al-Aloul, urged Palestinians to prepare for
“popular resistance” against Israel.

Meanwhile, the Palestinian Authority
said it was studying Israel’s response to the Palestinian proposals regarding
borders and security.

Nimer Hammad, political adviser to PA President
Mahmoud Abbas, said that Israeli envoy Yitzhak Molcho, who met with chief
Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat in Amman this week, presented “points and
observations” about the Palestinian view on the two core issues.

“The
Palestinian Authority promised to study the [Israeli] response and give an
answer during the next exploratory meeting [between the two sides],” Hammad
said.

Israel also promised to seriously study the Palestinian stance on
security and borders, he added.

Hammad said it was premature to talk
about a meeting between Abbas and Prime Minister Binyamin
Netanyahu.

Hammad told the PA’s Voice of Palestine radio station that the
PA expected confidence-building measures from Israel before talking about a
summit between Abbas and Netanyahu.

He said that such measures would
include a freeze of settlement construction and the release of Palestinians from
Israeli prisons, as well as removal of IDF checkpoints and the transfer of
additional areas in the West Bank to the exclusive control of the PA.